The patrol ship Neustrashimy, which belongs to Russia's Baltic Fleet, may help crack down on pirates operating off the coast of Somalia, a source in the Baltic Fleet's headquarters told Interfax-AVN on Friday.
"The crew of the Neustrashimy, which embarked on a long-distance voyage last Wednesday, prepared to carry out combat tasks off Somalia's coast recently," the source said.
The category of the ship allows it to successfully travel from the Baltic Sea into the Gulf of Aden and to carry out tasks in this region, he said.
Russia plans to send its combat ships to the Somali coast in the near future to help fight piracy in the area, Russian Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said.
"We have such plans for the near future. However, Russian ships will not be involved in any international operations. They will do this job on their own," Vysotsky said.
The number of attacks by Somali pirates on civilian vessels belonging to different countries has increased recently. Pirates hijacked Ukraine's vessel Faina under Belize's flag en route to Kenya in neutral waters not far from Kenya's coast on Thursday. Some reports
indicate that the Ukrainian ship was carrying military hardware, including nearly 30 T-72 tanks and spare parts for armored hardware.